I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to deburring machines and, more particularly, to such a machine designed for deburring gears.
II. Description of the Prior Art
Gears and other toothed elements, hereinafter collectively referred to as gears for brevity, are typically manufactured by a hobbing operation. The hobbing operation, however, disadvantageously creates burrs on the back side of the gear which is manufactured (with respect to the hobbing apparatus) which become very brittle following heat treatment of the gear. After the gear is assembled in a machine mechanism, such as a transmission, the burrs can severely damage, and even destroy, the mechanism if they become broken off from the gear.
As a result of this, the gears are typically deburred prior to their assembly in a machine mechanism. Removal of the burrs can be accomplished manually with a file or other similar means, but the manual removal of burrs is not only time consuming but also unduly expensive in labor costs.
There have, however, been a number of previously known machines capable of removing burrs from gears. Typically these previously known machines operate by forming, usually by grinding or cutting prior to heat treatment, a chamfer along the gear which removes any burrs which may be present.
These previously known deburring machines, however, are disadvantageous in a number of different respects. First, these previously known deburring machines are very slow in operation and thus, capable of only limited operating production in use.
A still further disadvantage of these previously known machines is that these deburring machines are unduly complex and expensive in construction. Moreover, many of these machines employ parts, such as grinding wheels which must be periodically replaced during operation of the duburring machine. The replacement of such parts not only results in downtime for the deburring machine, but is also expensive in maintenance materials and labor costs.